Glamorous and clamorous, beautiful and grotesque - the Art From The New World exhibition at Bristol’s City Museum and Gallery takes the lewd, the elegant and, above all, the original, sets it inside exquisite frames and displays it for all the world to see.
I’ve always sought out art that’s transportative or transformative in some way, and this exhibition ticked all those boxes, reminding me of the most twisted of fairy tales. Nothing’s quite as it seems, which is just how I believe art should be, with sub-text galore that allows you to interpret and, most likely, misinterpret to your heart’s content.
The exhibition showcases the talent of 49 contemporary North American artists, here under the care of the LA-based Corey Helford Gallery, and to me it represents so much of what I love about the US, where ultra-conventionality and extreme radicalism can reside, quite comfortably, a mere block apart.
From a writer’s point of view, the artwork in the museum entrance had me almost clapping my hands with glee. Mike Stilkey’s sculpture-painting is built entirely from novels donated by Orion Books - novels that have been saved from being pulped, giving old texts new life and showing that reinvention really is the new creation.
Art From The New World will be exhibiting at Bristol’s City Museum and Gallery until Sunday August 22nd 2010.




